Now, I don’t DO toes to bar (to be fair, I never actually TRIED), so I had to do lat engagements, which is still the swinging motion, just not hauling your legs all the way up to the bar. This is toes to bar (courtesy of thegetinshapegirl.com);

It’s rough, and hell on the hands of someone like me who has very little grip strength. I was working on this WOD pretty good – I got in 7 rounds + 6 reps – and on that very last round of TTB it happened.

I didn’t feel it, not really, until I got off the bar and looked down and just saw….skin. Hanging skin. Like this. (NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART)

OW. So of course I immediately rushed over to the one girl who’s a die-hard CrossFitter and said, “Ok, so what do I do with these?”

Basically, I let the skin harden, went home and cut it off with nail clippers, and then Neosporin-ed the hell out of my hands ALL DAY, without using a band-aid to cover them so they could breathe. This was, of course, the day I had pork spareribs with mint and JALAPENO sauce planned for dinner so, you know, I had to don gloves while cooking. I felt like a lunch lady.

These mofos were so sore, SO sore and didn’t start to feel ok until Sunday night. They’re really dry now, and still tender, so much so that I had to forego more TTB today and do v-ups instead. Which was total shite.

My legs are also smoked from this week: Monday brought Karen, plus jump rope work; Tuesday brought a shit show of a WOD with rotating stations for 25 minutes: push-ups, dips, kettlebell swings, 2-count bicylce crunches, and calorie row. And then today we did god damn thrusters, 21-15-9.

But it’s been a good, steady week for me! And I promise I won’t let you leave this post without some sort of reward because you totally just did look at my gross ass hands. So here, the jalapeño mint sauce recipe! I recommend not dumping ALL of it in the crock pot if that’s how you’re gonna do your ribs, because it’ll water down and just roll right off the meat.

Hey, congrats on your first rip! It’s an exciting and completely painful time. When I got my first one, I tried to keep it as clean as possible, cut as much “loose” skin back, and then put Neosporin on it during the day with a Band-Aid…but at night, leave breathe as much as possible. I also found a product called Crossfixe, it’s more of a solid lotion, but without any alcohol (so it doesn’t sting at all). It’s awesome, it helps your hands heal quickly.